^ Holman Hunt wrote an affectionate letter begging Shields not to grieve at the death of their great and good old friend, Madox Brown : —
" He had done his work, and done it nobly and well, and it
1 Edith M. Thomas.
PSALM xviT. 15 295
was evident that he could not have made much of further life in his art, and from his nature I think it is pretty clear that he had made up his mind about other matters, and would learn no more here, while elsewhere he may, with his singular honesty and consistency, rise to the highest pinnacle of wisdom. Death is a very little change, seen from the other side, and yet it must be a great clearer away of mists." ^
3. The fulness of that future satisfaction. — Seeing God we shall be satisfied. With all lesser joys the eye is not satisfied with seeing, but to look on Him will be enough. Enough for mind and heart, wearied and perplexed with partial knowledge and imperfect love ; enough for eager desires, which thirst, after all draughts from other streams; enough for will, chafing against lower lords and yet longing for authoritative control ; enough for all my being — to see God. Here we can rest after all wanderings, and say, " I travel no further ; here will I dwell for ever."
"When I awake I shall have done with tears, And the rough retinue of cares and fears; No memory of shadows shall remain That haunted all these heavy hours of pain —
Shadows of lingering doubt and old distrust. The heritage and burden of our dust; They shall depart as visions of the night Are conquered by the floods of morning light.
When I awake the soul's deep, yearning quest
Shall find in perfect love eternal rest.
Then I shall see Him, even as He is,
Who, while I wandered, knew and named me His,
When I awaken in the better land, Divine Eedeeiner, like Thee I shall stand. Not long the slumber and the dream abide — When I awake I shall be satisfied.
^ Life and Letters 0/ Frederic Shields, 321.
God's Gentleness and Man's Greatness.
Literature.
Allon (H.), The Indivelling Christ, 233.
Batclielor (H.), The Incarnation of God, 53.
Brooks (P.), The Spiritual Man, 301.
Bushnell (H.), Christ and His Salvation, 18.
Dods (M.), Christ and Man, 129.
Grimley (H. N.), The Temple of Humanity, 24.
Hoare (E.), Strength in Quietness, 40.
Irons (D. E.), A Faithful Ministry, 182
Johnston (J. B.), The Ministry of Reconciliation, 196.
Leach (C), Sunday Afternoons with JVorking Men, 241.
Mackennal (A.), The Life of Christian Consecration, 67.
Moody (A.), The Message of Salvation, 69.
Moore (A. L.), From Advent to Advent, 50.
Newton (J.), The Problem of Personality, 157.
Palmer (J. R.), Burden-Bearing, 265.
Pearce (J.), Life on the Heights, 36.
Pearse (M. G.), The Gospel of the Day, 44,
Spurgeon (C. H.), Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, xii. (1866) No. 683.
Taylor (W. M.), Tlie Limitations of Life, 344.
Trench (R. C), Sermons Preached in Westminster Abbey, 339.
Vaughan (J.), Sermons (Brighton Pulpit), iv. (1865) No. 512.
Woodford (J. R.), Sermons : 0. T. Ser., 105.
Christian World Pulpit, iv. 232 (Leach).
998
GOD'S Gentleness and Man's Greatness.
Thy gentleness hath made me great.— Ps. xviii. 35.
1. This Psalm is a hymn of praise after deliverance from deadly perils. It is also found with slight verbal alterations in 2 Sam. xxii., in connexion with that part of David's history which is mentioned in the title. The writer of the Book of Samuel found it already in existence as a song of David. Its composition probably belongs to the Psalmist's later life. It is evidently a thankful retrospect of God's wonderful dealings with him, referring especially to the time when his life was most beset with dangers, — his bitter and protracted persecution by Saul, his expulsion from his throne and kingdom by Absalom, and the fierce foreign wars that distracted him for a long time thereafter. But from all these he had been graciously delivered, and from a peaceful old age he now looks back with wonder and gratitude. He combines the whole of that stormy past in one idealized and glowing picture. In the imminent peril described, he gives us the concentration of many perils, and in his description of a gracious interposition, the concentration of repeated interposi- tions, brought to a common focus at which they are seen as one, with corresponding intensity. In the poet's imagination it is a Theophany, a visible exhibition of the presence and power of the great Jehovah on behalf of His servant, in such extremity that nothing less than this could have saved him. His style is majestic, his conceptions vivid, and his language graphic. It lias been well said that this wonderful composition bears the marks of the classic age of Hebrew poetry. With the exception of the matchless 68th Psalm, it has no rival in this whole collection.
2. In this setting we find the jewel of our text. Who has not often dwelt in thought on this precious saying? As, after
300 GOD'S GENTLENESS
we have heard a sweet strain of music, we keep going over and over again to ourselves some especially pleasing portion of it ; or as, when we have gazed a while on a gorgeous landscape, our eyes rest at length on some object of surpassing loveliness within it; so, after we have perused this Psalm, we return again and again to the words of the text. They fall on the ear like the soft breathing of an aeolian harp, and they linger there with a per- manence that earthly music knows not. Many gems flash out upon us from this book of praise, but there are few with a radiance so bright as that which comes from this one, " Thy gentleness hath made me great."